PANDORA Revealed

[rteetz]

If it takes Disney 6 months to renovate a restroom and over a year to renovate a restaurant I'm guessing we should see Avatar land completed sometime in the year 2020.

Nope still on pace for 2017. Star wars on the other hand could be 2020.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Nope still on pace for 2017. Star wars on the other hand could be 2020.

YUP.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

can you at least tell us your excitement level from before you went in to after you left?

1) Excitement level BEFORE tour: "hmm. another mistake by Joe Rohde"
2) Excitement level AFTER tour: "hmm, still no interest in Avatar, but attractions look REALLY COOL!"

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Thanks info, but the 47 acres is clearly wrong. The area available where CMM used to be is only 16 acres, and not all of it will be part of the finished land. If we start from the current construction site, this would be 47 acres...

1) Sorry, can only go on info supplied.
. . . don't think this is a secret (so, I think I am safe, there)
. . . construction can be seen on any aerial map
2) But Pandora, takes in way more than just Camp Minnie-Mickey.
. . . Pizzafari, for instance is part of Pandora
3) Includes total land/water within the perimeter, River of Lights, etc.
. . . after all, when counting area of Epcot, one includes the lake.

 

[twebber55]

1) Sorry, can only go on info supplied.
. . . don't think this is a secret (so, I think I am safe, there)
. . . construction can be seen on any aerial map
2) But Pandora, takes in way more than just Camp Minnie-Mickey.
. . . Pizzafari, for instance is part of Pandora
3) Includes total land/water within the perimeter, River of Lights, etc.
. . . after all, when counting area of Epcot, one includes the lake.

so im confused
did you just look at the model or did you actually get to tour the land

 

[Savagekids]

How did you get to take this tour?

 

[cranbiz]

Rusty is a CM.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

so im confused
did you just look at the model or did you actually get to tour the land

1) Tour the land.
2) Of course, the attractions were just scale models.
3) Now, c'mon folks, there will be NO secrets, here . . . just general information.

 

[twebber55]

1) Tour the land.
2) Of course, the attractions were just scale models.
3) Now, c'mon folks, there will be NO secrets, here . . . just general information.

thats what i thought thanks

 

[Teamubr]

Thanks TRS,

For a non-Avatar fan to walk away from this saying it's "REALLY COOL", bodes well. I am/was (it's been a while) an Avatar fan. All the PR to date has looked interesting, but it's nice to see some validation as it gets closer. It sounds like this land is going to be remarkable even for those that never heard of Avatar.

j

 

[rteetz]

1) Sorry, can only go on info supplied.
. . . don't think this is a secret (so, I think I am safe, there)
. . . construction can be seen on any aerial map
2) But Pandora, takes in way more than just Camp Minnie-Mickey.
. . . Pizzafari, for instance is part of Pandora
3) Includes total land/water within the perimeter, River of Lights, etc.
. . . after all, when counting area of Epcot, one includes the lake.

So the 47 acres includes all on going construction besides avatar? Either way Pandora itself is not 47 acres. I could see it adding up if you are including rivers of light, avatar, and everything else going on at AK but Pandora itself is not 47 acres.

 

[DDLand]

1) Excitement level BEFORE tour: "hmm. another mistake by Joe Rohde"
2) Excitement level AFTER tour: "hmm, still no interest in Avatar, but attractions look REALLY COOL!"

Thanks for the info! This validates what I had been thinking about this project for a while. Your reaction seems spot on.

1) Sorry, can only go on info supplied.
. . . don't think this is a secret (so, I think I am safe, there)
. . . construction can be seen on any aerial map
2) But Pandora, takes in way more than just Camp Minnie-Mickey.
. . . Pizzafari, for instance is part of Pandora
3) Includes total land/water within the perimeter, River of Lights, etc.
. . . after all, when counting area of Epcot, one includes the lake.

I see how you could get to that number. If you're including all of Morpho then you'd have Avatar, Harambe Marketplace, RoL, the extensive work on Discovery Island/Tree of Life, the new Starbucks, Pizzafari/new restaurant, Flame Tree work, the path simplifying Asia, and of course the new Savannah late night offerings.

They look at this as a DCA style redo. It's pretty big.

 

[goofy4prez]

Nope still on pace for 2017. Star wars on the other hand could be 2020.

It was an attempt at humor... Bad humor at that. But I have heard as well that as of right now it is on schedule.

 

[circus4u]

So the 47 acres includes all on going construction besides avatar? Either way Pandora itself is not 47 acres. I could see it adding up if you are including rivers of light, avatar, and everything else going on at AK but Pandora itself is not 47 acres.

Well, you don't really know what else Disney has in mind to re-theme/remodel before this opens either. A lot of time between now and when Pandora opens, so it could be possible to do other minor projects as opening gets closer. Have to take "Rusty" at his word since he has seen it and been briefed on it, where the rest of us have mostly rumors and speculation to fall back on.

I am not a fan at all of Avatar (or Animal Kingdom for that matter), but based on his statement, I am willing to give it the benefit of the doubt now.

 

[Madteaparty001]

I see how you could get to that number. If you're including all of Morpho then you'd have Avatar, Harambe Marketplace, RoL, the extensive work on Discovery Island/Tree of Life, the new Starbucks, Pizzafari/new restaurant, Flame Tree work, the path simplifying Asia, and of course the new Savannah late night offerings.

They look at this as a DCA style redo. It's pretty big.

Now if only they would demolish dinoland and start over once pandora is done, it's really pathetic when compared to anything else Disney has done.

 

[circus4u]

47 acres? Could this have any bearing on things? "Other areas include some land near Animal Kingdom which could be used to expand that theme park or its nearby resort hotel." http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/...s-so-they-can-destroy-wetlands-closer-to-park

 

[rteetz]

47 acres? Could this have any bearing on things? "Other areas include some land near Animal Kingdom which could be used to expand that theme park or its nearby resort hotel." http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/...s-so-they-can-destroy-wetlands-closer-to-park

This is part of the ongoing wet land preservation stuff that Disney has been doing over the past year. there is another thread about this.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

This thread reminds me of when I was a kid and one of my friends would say "I know something you don't know but I can't tell you."

 

[DDLand]

47 acres? Could this have any bearing on things? "Other areas include some land near Animal Kingdom which could be used to expand that theme park or its nearby resort hotel." http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/...s-so-they-can-destroy-wetlands-closer-to-park

I would put that at a definite no. Avatar Land is not going to be anywhere close to 47 acres of continuous used space. Not only would it be insanely expensive and expansive, but also it would actually make for bad show. That's not the most obvious problem with the project being 47 acres either; Avatar is boxed on 4 sides making further development almost impossible.

If they were to proceed with a 47 acre behemoth, it would be the largest single land based off an IP in a Disney Theme Park if not any theme park. Keep in mind this is Joe Rohde we're talking about. The man's many things (perhaps the definition of Renaissance man), but first and foremost he's an artists. Every little details is a paint stoke in his masterpieces. Each rock has a story. Every stream is placed with precision. All the plants are alive and conveying their own messages.

This makes for some of the most exciting and cool stories in theme parks. Really immersive lands. Everything with a purpose, and those purposes range from the small themes to the largest most complex. There's more depth in his park than perhaps any other.

This all makes for a usually awesome guest experience, and a fun time for fans to contemplate and decipher his messages and subtleties. That also means costs get bloated out of this world. A 47 Acre Joe Rohde signature piece about Avatar, which I might remind you is more niche then several other of their properties, would be the single most expensive theme park land ever. The level of detail displayed in concept videos and models is simply insane:

While I'm not saying it's impossible that Iger would authorize a 47 acre Avatar land thats prospects are in question, I am saying it's very very unlikely.

Additionally you need to recall that the strategy that has been used since Imagineering's beginning is to hide ugly buildings behind a facade that creates a sense of place. Most recently Expedition Everest, Cars Land, and Adventure Isle have followed this mold (I'd say Weiss and Rohde have used this tactic beautifully). This almost diorama-like finish completes a picture and presents greater depth than one of my personnel favorite Tony Baxter attractions Big Thunder or the Matterhorn in which you can walk all the way around. Everest and RSRs feel much taller then both those attractions even though they're in the same ball park because of this tactic of controlling perspective. Avatar seems to be following a similar solution. Build a diorama and let people explore it. A look at the model:

I borrowed a photo from a past thread (http://www.disboards.com/threads/aerial-construction-photos.3440030/#post-54265807) and I think it's enlightening.




The red arrow is where you're coming from. The line is the mural or facade. If they moved beyond the mural, people would be exposed to a show building. They could fix it up by building Rockwork all the way around, but the sense of perspective found in the other Disney attractions would be destroyed. That would also be costly. Bad show with a huge price tag doesn't help. Now could they have designed it from the start to work? Yeah. But they didn't.

Finally because we know this mural and show building is in place, they can't move directly west. They also can't really move North because they bump up against other park areas. They also can't move East because you have the park entrance and other park areas. There seems to be some small unused space to the South. That could be an option for expansion. Maybe that's where some other attraction was planned. Even then, it's far from 47 acres.

More likely is this is project Morpho. A project that Tom Staggs thinks has all the potential of the DCA renovation and rebranding. This is Disney "fixing" DAK. We're going to have our first test to see how it's working next year with ROL and later park hours. I'm excited.

I think it very well could be that 47 acres were affected for project Morpho. I don't think think it all has to do with Avatar unless they plan to make separate satellite lands in the park. Unlikely...

Additionally since we can't see the work being done, and that Disney's investment schedule is getting crowded, it would be the mid 2020s before Avatar the next generation opened unless people just loved it to extreme creepy levels.

 

[Alice Royal]

Wonder how accurate the Na'vi language will be if it is used at all in the park. There is a large community around it like there is with Klingon and the original developer of the language has expanded his work so it's basically as full as any other.

(Kaltxì, Rusty! )